.: Apologies for not updating for like two months. I found out I was going to graduate school last minute and had to get a bunch of things done by an upcoming deadline to secure my spot or else I would be back at square one in my life. But now I'm sort of back; going to be incredibly busy for an entire year, but I'm trying to get this finale done before I have to dedicate insane amounts of time to studying. If I can get past all the fighting, I think it'll be smooth sailing for a while, so let's hope for the best. Also, I was planning on getting this entire finale written in a single chapter, but I got to 10,000 words and realized I wasn't even halfway through my outline and decided I did not want a 20,000-word chapter. Because of that, it may seem incomplete at the end, but it's for the best. And fun fact! I watched Dragon Ball a few months ago. I'd say my favorite arc was the one about Korin Tower. Little Upa was so cute! Since Upa and Bora are meant to be Native Americans, I thought about how the Lun'aecho Tribe is also my take on Native American culture in the One Piece universe. So, I might've incorporated a Mercenary Tao gimmick in this chapter because I simply could. (And yes, I'm now watching Dragon Ball Z behind the scenes.) Credits to Hell's Paradise, Naruto Shippuden, Jujutsu Kaisen, and Dragon Ball for choreography help and inspiration. :.
The Girl with A Half-Soul
Chapter 61:
The Wolf Woman: Savior
It was nightmare fuel. Kiyaya felt the rawest sense of doom when she noticed something glaring at her through the darkness of the forest. It stood on two legs and had black eyes. She did not even realize it was walking toward her until it emerged into the open. Lakota recognized it so fast that he knew that something was terribly wrong.
The witchdoctor had reached them from a far distance completely alone and of her own accord. Her headdress made of raccoon skins and raven feathers looked just as unclean as ever, and the white markings on her face gave her profile definition. She remained attached to Cherokee's shadow using the ones cast by the forest to help extend the range for miles. When they saw that Cherokee was not with her, their hope that she had defeated the remaining Admiral was rescinded.
Not only was the witchdoctor alone, but she was visibly furious. The wrinkles on her face were deeper from her grimace, and her eyebrows never relaxed from their furrowed state. She was in no mood to debate or wrangle her host's remaining warriors. She just spoke to let the words flow out from her mouth.
Lakota and Kiyaya watched the visible curse drop to the ground and immediately spread to every pair of feet. Ankles were grabbed, people's attention was snatched, and suddenly, they were forcibly dragged to her. Lots of alerted yelps sounded until she had them exactly where she wanted them. Streaks were dredged through the soil until it looked like a spider web had been weaved. Uncomfortable, they felt burning from the involuntary gathering in their soles. The witchdoctor stood in the center of Cherokee's forces as they were unable to resist. "Silence," her ragged voice droned.
Hearing it somehow forced them to obey even though she did not use a curse. All they knew was that the once voiceless devil fruit power had summoned them and was making her existence known. It was not the first time they had met her, but it was scarier without Cherokee. Without her, it felt like she had free will to do whatever she pleased. And they knew it would be terrible things.
"Cherokee is about to die," she disclaimed.
Disbelief trickled through all listening ears. Lakota was especially struck by the news. Kiyaya could feel his pulse quicken out of terror.
"The enemy has her on the verge of defeat. If she dies, I will die with her, and this war will most likely be lost. Time is of the essence if you wish to save her." Before anyone could bombard her with pointless remonstrations, she whipped around to make the grips on ankles ascend to mouths. The shock of having their faces imposed upon worried them. Then she pointed at Lakota and Kiyaya to address them specifically. "You…Both of you."
The wolf woman felt the need to set down Lakota. Unlike the others, they were not cursed to muteness.
"I want you both to aid Cherokee. This man is strong. The strongest warriors are needed to face him. That is how you save her."
Lakota pushed through his anxieties about what could be going on with Cherokee. He was not so gullible. "Uh, I don't think my Observation Haki is going to help much," he opinionated. If anything, he would be a liability to the cause. The battlefield proved that.
"You were once fierce and physically capable," the witchdoctor recalled from her times of hiding. "But most importantly, you are needed to guide her away from the darkness she drowns in." Her fingers gathered to point downwards. The black markings on the ground rose upon command, and then she directed them to splatter his body.
The weight of the words was much heavier than he expected. Lakota was thrust back into Kiyaya. It looked like he had been caught in a thick black net that completely covered him from head to toe. Kiyaya's reflexes were fast enough to break his fall, but she panicked when his agonizing wail erupted. The trees rustled from birds quickly evacuating the premises. Kiyaya gasped and snatched him back up, only to see she was useless to him. The curse had him stiff as he endured internal pain so extreme that he thought he was turning into something inhuman. His flesh, muscles, connective tissue, and even organs were ripping apart from within. She helplessly watched his fingers grip fistfuls of her fur and his eyes roll back from being unable to handle what had surpassed his pain threshold.
Kiyaya's panic amplified when she realized it was pointless to try prying the curse off him. Her claws were not able to separate him from it. "Take the curse off him!" Kiyaya cried out in desperation.
The witchdoctor began to lowly speak another curse into existence. Her miasma escaped her mouth just to form into words.
"TAKE IT OFF HIM NOW!" Kiyaya demanded furiously. Her fist went to smash the witchdoctor into the ground, but she avoided the hit just to plaster a different curse on Kiyaya. Before she even had a second to pull her hand off the ground, she felt that familiar ache in her bones that came from getting shrunk.
Everyone watched as the wolf woman returned to a size more similar to theirs. She groaned as she stayed on hands and knees, slipping Lakota back into the grass to avoid dropping him. Soon he was able to be caressed in her arms, and his wailing stopped. She expected to find he had passed out, but he was very much awake. The curse on him had disappeared. His pain was gone. "Lakota?" Kiyaya gently said as she held the side of his confused face.
He looked at her. Then he lifted his limp hand to find that he could straighten it. She did not understand until she watched him flex his fingers.
"Stand up," the witchdoctor instructed.
At first, Lakota wanted to laugh because that was a joke he had been told once or twice. But he noticed when he engaged his core, he actually felt it obey. Kiyaya did not have to help him. For the first time in a very long time, he sat up all on his own. There was no discomfort or strain involved. When he pulled his shirt up, he found zero scarring and everything looking the way it was meant to. That was when Kiyaya gave him room just to notice how well-built he had become. Shoulders broad and pantlegs filled to the brim. No more muscular atrophy anywhere. The witchdoctor had restored him back to the way he was before his injury. All the pain was the necessary repairs to make this a reality.
Kiyaya was speechless as he did it all by himself. Shifted to his knees, then to his feet with no sign of struggle or weakness. All of the tribesmen and women who knew Lakota enough to remember this version of him had similar reactions of amazement They never thought they would see the day. Neither did Lakota, to be honest. Cherokee always made it sound like such a transformation was beyond her capabilities. But he was not going to complain. A life he had shelved, where he could take care of himself and his family, was suddenly back in his grasp.
He looked at Kiyaya to see literal rivers washing down her face. Independence had been anointed. For once, she was not afraid of being too rough with him by yanking him into a tight hug. And yes, she made sure his head was tucked in her chest just how he liked it.
He just got his old body back and now she was trying to suffocate him with her cleavage. Not the worst way to go out. But now was not the time! Still, he wondered if he also got his old strength back. Instead of returning the embrace, he reached under her backside and lifted her off the ground. The unusual sensation faltered her balance, so she grabbed him tighter while he just laughed. He always wanted to do that.
The part that startled him was the sound of her wincing in pain. He immediately let her go to find out he was holding her too hard. "I'm sorry!" he said with worry. The last thing he wanted was to hurt her while she was pregnant.
She rubbed below her buttocks as the witchdoctor stepped between them. "Cursing you with a restored body is only part of what comes with it. You now have strengthened Haki, too," she revealed.
"R-Really?" he stammered, flexing his fingers again. He thought his Observation Haki was already exceptional since he trained it so much for many moons, but having this body allowed him to tap into Armament Haki now. He did not even know how to use that.
"I believe it," Kiyaya joked. She knew it was unintentional, but he needed to watch his strength or else he would really hurt someone.
"It's been ingrained in your body. Use it responsibly." The witchdoctor turned to her next and cast her next curse. Rather than being subjected to pain as well, Kiyaya actually felt a wave of relief course through her body. Her muscles did not feel heavy anymore. She felt light as air just like she woke up from a great night's sleep. "You can now go Sulong for as long as you need to," the witchdoctor told her. "Now, make haste. For your Chieftain."
"W-Wait," Kiyaya tried to interject.
But the witchdoctor dissolved like ashes falling into a campfire. The curses put on the surrounding warriors and minks were gone with her.
"If we're helping Cherokee, who's going to lead them back into battle?" she asked Lakota instead.
They both glanced at the crowd to see nobody willing to step up. But then some started to filter through to reach the front. Three volunteers wearing alike outfits consisting of capes, knee-high boots, and feathered hats withdrew their sabers from their hips. Kiyaya lit up. Of course! The Three Musketeers.
The squirrel mink glanced at the teepee that Rodencia and Roderic were in. He knew that to keep her treatment ongoing, he had to be the one to keep the Marines away at all costs. "We'll take your place," he undertook on behalf of his team.
"Thank you, Thalor," Kiyaya said as someone else hurried over with their bison to give to them.
Lakota accepted the reins but suddenly endured a headache that had his mind racing. So many images flashed by his eyes that it created a moving vision. Cherokee was on her knees deep in the forest with the Admiral towering over her. The sword in his hand glimmered before striking down onto her one final time. Then their bison burst onto the scene just seconds later.
He inhaled sharply from how vivid it was to him. Kiyaya paused in mounting the saddle when she noticed the cold sweat on his forehead. "What is it, Kota?"
"We're not gonna make it," he foretold, letting go of the reins. He looked into the forest where the witchdoctor came from, knowing the two people he sensed entrenched within were Cherokee and the Admiral. If they wanted to rescue her from an execution, they had to get there so fast that the Admiral would not know what happened. If only they could sprint while skywalking! But even he knew that would not be fast enough either. They needed wings to fly there. His vulture demon was long gone, though.
"Yes, we will. Just get on," Kiyaya urged him.
Without voicing his only other idea first, he ran up to the biggest tree in their vicinity and dove at its base feet first. If he truly could use Armament Haki, now was the time to prove it. Any normal person would have just hit the tree and landed on the ground, but Lakota jumped with enough strength to completely obliterate it. The splintering sound was deafening, making everyone flinch, and then they heard a long creak as the tree fell.
"Lakota!" Kiyaya yelled as she scrambled off the bison to go to his aid out of habit.
He stood up unscathed and dusted himself off. "I'm good," he assured her as he grabbed trunk to drag it into the clearing.
She paused with a perplexed look on her wolf face. "What the Hell did you-teia do that for?" It seemed highly unnecessary if all he wanted to do was use Armament Haki to its fullest potential. Like the witchdoctor said, they had to hurry!
He passed her up and borrowed a hatchet to quickly remove where the branches started to separate from the trunk. It was a single whack, but his arm had coated in Haki so that it could transfer to the weapon, too. The ground split underneath when it was finished. What made it so jarring was how naturally he did it for a guy who had been lame for like ten moons. "Just trust me on this," he insisted.
Just like the first day they bonded with one another, Kiyaya felt as if the roles had reversed. The Lun'aecho Tribe once viewed her as an intruder who could turn on them at any second. Since Lakota was in her care, he quickly learned that she was true to her word. They were strangers to each other then, but he still gave her a chance. Now it was time for her to let him use his newfound Haki and strength even if she did not know how far he could go.
He lifted what remained of the tree by one end and aimed the opposite end toward the sky just above the treeline. His muscles rippled under the weight, but there was no pain from it. In the meantime, the bystanders swarmed Kiyaya with things in hand. She quickly accepted weapons and supplies like bow and arrows, hatchets, and rope. When she looked back at him with pockets filling and her belt getting heavier, she could not help but notice how he was visibly calculating something while casually holding something that nobody else on the island could. "What's your plan, Babe?"
"Getting the angle right," he answered, adjusting his hands. The two bodies in the middle of their mountain range were pinpointed by his Haki. If he could create the perfect route for them, it all only depended on his ability to travel it.
She had no time to ask for elaboration. Lakota took a step back before heaving while throwing the tree as hard as he possibly could. The bark clenched against his fingers broke. Just as it disappeared into the night, Kiyaya's hand was grabbed. Static shock transferred from her to him. She was pulled gently enough to not rip her arm off but forcefully enough to feel her body leave the ground. Then, suddenly, the bottoms of her shoes touched down on the tree. The opening of her eyes revealed that they were going for a cruise at such a high speed that she thought she would fly off with the slightest movement.
"HOLY MOTHER OF–" she screamed into oblivion, latching onto Lakota for stability despite having the bigger stature.
He kept his knees bent and feet spread to keep steady, holding an arm around her waist to keep her anchored with him. This was by far the craziest stunt he had ever attempted. He could hardly believe it worked, too. His nervousness was masked by his determination to save Cherokee, and also to keep Kiyaya calm even though she had every right to freak out right now. "The bison would've taken too long!" he told her through the high winds that wanted to silence all other sounds. "I wanted to take a more direct route!"
"DIRECT?!"
Down where it was more quiet, Sosuke looked down upon Cherokee as she continued to weep. She had given up. Now he only had one last thing to do. He lifted Adrian's sword to hover it over her neck. There was no hesitation in his downward swing.
But he stopped at the very last second.
His gaze lifted when he detected something mysterious enter his field of Observation Haki. It was moving at an insanely high speed. As he looked around, he failed to notice anything out of the ordinary. It turned out, though, that he underestimated how fast the entity would arrive.
The object burst through the canopy worse than any cannonball could rip through a ship. Sosuke was so stunned when he recognized it as a tree. To make it better, it was coming straight for him. He had never seen anything like it before. All his body knew to do was jump out of the way, but even that was barely enough. The end of it speared into the ground so violently that it uprooted everything in its path and continued trenching until its momentum was halted by friction.
Lakota knew it would not be pretty, but he dismounted with Kiyaya in his grasp before they could endure the impact. He kept his arms around her to help protect their little one. Together they rolled until his back hit a different tree. All they saw when things settled was how Cherokee was frozen and staring up at them from her position on the ground. That was when Lakota realized that his vision must have been true, and he changed her destiny by being proactive.
Meanwhile, Cherokee was not sure what she was looking at. She recognized the two newcomers, but was unsure if she had been sent to the afterlife because it did not look like reality. Lakota was back to the way he used to be: able-bodied like in the good ole days. He was quick to come to her after checking his wife, noticing the way she was trembling like an autumn leaf with wounds on her face and body from a beating. No longer being in her awakened state did not faze him. His priority was making sure she was okay. The smile on his face was proof of that.
Away from them, Sosuke panted from the stress of escaping death. He was flat on his back. Lifting his head showed just how close the tree was to castrating him. The sympathy pains that resonated through his loins was enough to make him scoot farther away. He did not know which was worse: Getting a giant hole punched through his gut if he had not moved in time or not moving enough to turn into a eunuch. But he composed himself enough to return to his feet.
He dusted himself off and noticed two familiar faces. It was the paralyzed savage and the wolf mink from earlier. This would be the third or fourth time he encountered them. Their entrance took the cake, though. He had…questions. "So, care to explain how you rode that thing here?"
Kiyaya untethered herself from all the extra paraphernalia to let it fall at her feet. They saved Cherokee but failed to kill two birds with one stone. That was okay since it was wishful thinking anyway. She cracked her knuckles in anticipation for more action. "Nope. I was just the passenger."
"Fair enough. I just can't believe she managed to call for backup when she was in the palm of my hand."
Cherokee looked back at him, not knowing what he was talking about, but Lakota just rested a hand on her shoulder. "Let us handle this. Take a break."
Sosuke scoffed at the implication that they could defeat him. That woman was the most powerful person on this island besides himself. There was no way a disabled man and a tired mink could stand any chance against him. They were almost begging him to stop playing nice at this point. "She couldn't beat me before," he stated matter-of-factly.
Lakota stood up to block Cherokee from any attempt to strike her while she was down. She looked at two people who cared about her enough to throw themselves in the fire. Sosuke's smirk disappeared when he realized something was up. The paralyzed man was not paralyzed after all, and the wolf mink looked up at the full moon a little too long for his liking.
"She was alone before," Lakota corrected him.
Kiyaya's lustrous silver fur transformed into a glowing white. The Sulong returned to its full glory of long hair top and bottom, but her new curse made the electro go haywire. Visible blue sparks incessantly zapped around her body until it looked like a shell of armor. Her energy levels were more than restored. The cup was overflowing. She bounced on her toes just from how hyped she was to toy with this Admiral.
"Me first," she called dibs. Then, she launched at him. They were swallowed by the forest in the blink of an eye.
"I'll catch up," Lakota murmured in admiration. His wife was so cool, and she could stand her own ground, too. He really hit the jackpot with her.
Knowing that they were alone now, he returned to Cherokee's level. The sides of her face were swelling by the second. Blood from her nostril was smeared over her lip and part of her cheek. The exhaustion was getting more obvious in her eyes the longer he looked at her. The most he could do to take care of her was use his sleeve to clean her off a bit. There was no questioning about what happened to her awakened form. If anything, he was glad to see her back to normal. "Do you think you got a few more minutes in you?" he asked her.
Her back slouched as if her confidence was completely sapped. Now that her awakened powers were gone, she truly did not know how they were going to win this. And the thought of others taking on the responsibility felt like she had failed again.
"It's fine if you can't go all out, but your powers would still be great help," he added, knowing she was blaming herself for letting things get this far. When she looked up again, she was caught up in a sweet caress where he gently cupped the back of her head and pressed his forehead against hers. Their complementing half-moons met to form a full one, showing that they were always meant to be a team. The gesture was heartfelt enough to bring back the tears welling in her eyelids. "You don't have to do this alone, Keekee. We're here to help you. If that means you need a few minutes to rest, that's fine."
She was not given a moment to reply. He just hugged her and kissed the side of her head.
"I love you."
Her lip curled as she wanted to say it back. For some reason, she did not. But he did not dwell on it. He just let her go and grabbed the dropped supplies he needed so he could go help Kiyaya. Seeing him run off so naturally had her know that her witchdoctor acted without her command. The consequences would not be good, but he was happy to be here, and that was all that mattered.
Thank you, Chak Chel, she internally said.
When Kiyaya had made her first move, she managed to get her fingers around his neck. But at the same time, Sosuke had pulled back to keep her electro at bay. To confront him meant she had to work for it. They traversed through the changing slopes of the terrain in pursuit of one another. Dodging trees and undergrowth and trying to change course multiple times did not deter either of them. They just glared and kept comments to themselves. Sosuke, however, knew something was up. This mink used to tower above him. Now she was just taller. Her glowing red eyes kept him from asking about it because of how menacing they portrayed her Sulong.
A thicker trunk passed between them. Kiyaya watched as he vanished behind it and did not come out the other side. A brief moment of alarm turned into blocking his punch as he approached from behind her instead. An audible clap! emitted from the contact. Then they pushed each other so hard that they passed each other to switch places.
They continued to run parallel but quickly faced off once more. Sosuke's next punch was so close to grazing the side of her muzzle that she felt the blue sparks uncover her pelt. But Kiyaya rode around him to hit him where he was vulnerable. Taking this into account, Sosuke opened his front toward her and shifted the weight in his feet. That way, when she retaliated with a punch of her own, he already caused her to miss.
But her artillery was more than one-noted hits. She was not afraid to open her hands to reveal those daggers she had for claws. She kept her momentum going to try slicing his ribs through his white coat, but he hopped away from her reach. Next, she tried to time when his feet would touch the ground again by side-kicking into his path. Instead of falling for it, Sosuke kicked at her. She lifted her targeted shoulder and flipped to regain her posture.
Her next punch was blocked with ease. When she tried to claw him with her nondominant hand, he twisted his arm to knock her off aim. That same arm blew past her ear, and she caught him by grabbing his wrist to yank him over her shoulder. Rather than get thrown, he just dropped to the ground and stomped the bottom of his boot against her stomach. That was all it took to get her to release him and jump back. If she had not coated her core with Haki, she would be coughing up blood right now.
Sosuke jumped back to his feet but paused. The wolf mink did not get angry enough to restart their fight. She just breathed steadily while her hair seemed to levitate and sizzle with sparks. "…That's odd," he finally said. "I don't think that actually hurt you."
"Sorry," she replied. "You-teia just startled me was all."
"How?"
"I'm having a baby. I gotta watch where I take hits."
"Oh– Wait, why are you fighting me?! You know I'm trying to kill you, right?"
"I'm not stupid. Of course I know that."
"Then…why risk it?"
For a guy who was an Admiral, one of the top three highest ranked in the Navy, he sure was letting his guard down a little bit. What kind of enemy allowed time for chitchat? Dumb question. He obviously was not scared of her duping him. Moreover, he was probably not a heartless monster either. It was very possible that he was here just doing his job. Underneath that uniform was a human being with some kind of moral code to live by. She could tell by the way he showed a little bit of humility toward her condition.
Kiyaya decided to entertain him with an honest answer. "This is my home. I must fight for the place where I will raise my child. Even if it costs me my life, because mine is not the only one who will live in these mountains."
Sosuke grinned at her congenial notion. Although they were enemies who needed to eliminate each other, he had to give her credit for having a valid reason to oppose him. What drove her was family. What drove him was orders. Luckily, his orders did not include inhumane behaviors. "Fine," he yielded. "I'll be a gentleman and not aim for your stomach. Is that a fair truce?"
The small compromise surprised Kiyaya. Except she did not have time to dwell on it. Sosuke's boot pressed so deeply against the ground beneath him that it buckled. He charged at her with another Haki-powered punch destined for her predatory jaw.
She dropped her shoulder and proceeded to roll him over her back to reroute his attack. He immediately came back once he landed. When she tried swiping her claws at him, he punched her wrist to deflect them. Following that was a different punch to her chest. She hit back with a nasty elbow to his ribcage. What she failed to see was his arm charged back with an extra coat of Armament Haki on top of the existing one.
So, when he flattened his hand and attempted to jab a crater into her face, she felt him split air particles as she barely dodged. An air current followed the path, shooting through the leaves above them. It was the same technique that Adrian had tried to use against Cherokee. But just that one instance made Kiyaya aware of how potent of a hit that would be. She continued to move side to side and duck when he kept trying to use the technique against her.
Kiyaya had her Observation Haki working as hard as possible to keep her alive. She needed some kind of moment of opportunity to get away from the defensive. Once that little window came, she swung her leg up toward his face. The side of her foot grazed his cheek. Right when she tried to kick him to the side, she instead hooked around the back of his neck and delivered a hefty kick to his stomach with her other foot.
Sosuke felt it ripple through his entire body like a rock getting tossed into still water. He groaned and spit up blood.
Kiyaya propelled herself off him while he did not try to come after her.
"Now that's cold," he hoarsely stated, wiping his chin clean.
"Oopsie," she played, approaching him again. "That was a double standard."
He ducked when she punched. Then he twisted around to kick her with the back of his heel. She bumped it away from her head, but he suddenly planted that foot and turned his back to her. The swing of his other leg caught her ankles, and she collapsed. To finish his spin, Sosuke stood back up and tried to stomp her where she lay. She knew it was coming, though, so she rolled to avoid it. In the middle of the roll, she got into a squat. One more spin allowed her to deliver a similar kick with the back of her heel, which he tried to block.
Unfortunately for him, it was hard enough to thrust him away. But he refused to fall. His wings reappeared to abruptly stop his movement. There was no break to be had when, in that same moment, he beat his wings so hard that he came soaring at her. Their collision was painfully heard. Not only did he punch her sternum, but he also got a handful of her shirt. They looked into each other's eyes while rushing deeper into the forest.
Finally, he shoved her away to try knocking her over, but Kiyaya was more agile than that. She crossed her arms to block his next punch. The next one she let her knees slack to get underneath. When he barely leaned above her, she kicked him up into the air.
He retracted his wings and gracefully flipped. She expected him to land, but instead he twisted midair to grab her elevated ankle. The resulting yank was hard to disallow due to his astounding strength. A single second was all it took to get to his next attack. Kiyaya was vulnerable when not touching the ground. The bottom of his boot kicked her right in the diaphragm to weaken her. To turn her, he kicked her shoulder next and grabbed her arm. That was when she felt him put her in a choke hold.
There was not much Kiyaya could do. She knew they were falling back down, but Sosuke had her pinned. And since he learned she could get out of this if he let go, he made sure to wait until the very last second. He spun her to drive her. Even as her electro rattled his muscles, he locked her in. All just so she would piledrive deep into the soil.
Kiyaya sunk almost waist-deep as the ground around her separated from her intrusion. Although her spinal column felt like it compressed and ruptured discs, she did not go limp. Her legs flailed to find her footing. Sosuke could kill her right here and now if she did not get up.
She pulled herself out and immediately noticed how she was alone. With a gasp, she turned to check her blind spot, but Sosuke had appeared from the opposite direction. His coat was open. He pulled a hidden blade tucked out of sight. Using his tricep to deal the most force, he went for it.
Kiyaya's Observation Haki sensed him too late. As she turned back, the blade punctured directly into her throat and shattered her cervical vertebrae. Her eyes dilated as she instinctively reached up to grab the blade. But Sosuke just ripped her open by pulling it down with all his strength. From her neck past her chest and into her right breast, he completely sliced through all bones in his path and popped her lung like a balloon. After removing the blade, he saw how expressionless her face was. So much blood erupted from the wound. Her gorgeous white fur quickly turned pink from getting soaked. Too bad he was not taking any chances.
He flipped the blade to jab her leg from her hip all the way down to her knee, kicked her good leg to knock her over, and flipped the blade once more to deal the fatal blow. Right in her forehead, he gouged the blade just to slam her head into the ground. Little bits of dirt and rock burst around her and settled. Her electro armor sizzled away. Not a single twitch or noise came from her as she laid dead with his entire weight on top of her. "I said I wouldn't aim for your stomach," he reminded her soul as it exited her physical body.
Lakota gasped for breath and dispelled all the images running through his head. The first thing he did was jerk his attention in the direction that Kiyaya and the Admiral were duking it out. He did not know where the vision came from or why he had to imagine a worst case scenario in their current predicament. But he still sensed how potent her life force was. Nothing terrible had happened to her.
Not yet, at least.
It was just like how he had a vision of Cherokee's execution. Using his unorthodox method to interrupt it showed that he indeed saw the future and spared her life. Now he was experiencing something similar.
The witchdoctor told him that she had cursed him with strengthened Haki. Something told him that his Observation Haki had been enhanced to the point where he could do more than just sense lifeforms in a large radius. Warriors began to anticipate an opponent's next attack the more they trained with the minks. He did not have such a luxury. But…was it possible that someone could anticipate an event in the future? If he let Kiyaya continue to fight alone, he saw what the outcome would be.
He did not want to even think about it too deeply. As far as he knew, Kiyaya's life was in critical danger. He had to intervene before it got to a point of no return.
The speed of his running increased. He wanted to catch up to them first. As long as he could beat them to that final place where she would be slain, the vision would not come true. But then he realized that he essentially had a map of what path they would take. Yes. That was perfect.
His belt rattled with hatchets that he picked up from the pile Kiyaya left behind. He also picked up rope, a full quiver of arrows, and a new bow. In his pockets were knives and even a whistle that he did not know what to use for yet, if at all. Everything else he had ideas for.
There was no reason he had to necessarily take over for Kiyaya. The vision showed she could handle him for most of it. He could use that to their advantage by setting up traps that the Admiral would fall for.
For a moment, he peered through the brush that separated them to see that he caught up finally. But he kept going instead of stopping. There was no time to waste, especially when that audible clap! sounded.
Sosuke and Kiyaya continued to run parallel but quickly faced off once more. His next punch was so close to grazing the side of her muzzle that she felt the blue sparks uncover her pelt. But she rode around him to hit him where he was vulnerable. Taking this into account, he opened his front toward her and shifted the weight in his feet. That way, when she retaliated with a punch of her own, he already caused her to miss.
But her artillery was more than one-noted hits. She was not afraid to open her hands to reveal those daggers she had for claws. She kept her momentum going to try slicing his ribs through his white coat, but he hopped away from her reach. Next, she tried to time when his feet would touch the ground again by side-kicking into his path. Instead of falling for it, Sosuke kicked at her. She lifted her targeted shoulder and flipped to regain her posture.
Her next punch was blocked with ease. When she tried to claw him with her nondominant hand, he twisted his arm to knock her off aim. That same arm blew past her ear, and she caught him by grabbing his wrist to yank him over her shoulder. Rather than get thrown, he just dropped to the ground and stomped the bottom of his boot against her stomach. That was all it took to get her to release him and jump back. If she had not coated her core with Haki, she would be coughing up blood right now.
Sosuke jumped back to his feet but paused. The wolf mink did not get angry enough to restart their fight. She just breathed steadily while her hair seemed to levitate and sizzle with sparks. "…That's odd," he finally said. "I don't think that actually hurt you."
"Sorry," she replied. "You-teia just startled me was all."
"How?"
"I'm having a baby. I gotta watch where I take hits."
"Oh– Wait, why are you fighting me?! You know I'm trying to kill you, right?"
"I'm not stupid. Of course I know that."
"Then…why risk it?"
For a guy who was an Admiral, one of the top three highest ranked in the Navy, he sure was letting his guard down a little bit. What kind of enemy allowed time for chitchat? Dumb question. He obviously was not scared of her duping him. Moreover, he was probably not a heartless monster either. It was very possible that he was here just doing his job. Underneath that uniform was a human being with some kind of moral code to live by. She could tell by the way he showed a little bit of humility toward her condition.
Kiyaya decided to entertain him with an honest answer. "This is my home. I must fight for the place where I will raise my child. Even if it costs me my life, because mine is not the only one who will live in these mountains."
Sosuke grinned at her congenial notion. Although they were enemies who needed to eliminate each other, he had to give her credit for having a valid reason to oppose him. What drove her was family. What drove him was orders. Luckily, his orders did not include inhumane behaviors. "Fine," he yielded. "I'll be a gentleman and not aim for your stomach. Is that a fair truce?"
The small compromise surprised Kiyaya. Except she did not have time to dwell on it. Sosuke's boot pressed so deeply against the ground beneath him that it buckled. He charged at her with another Haki-powered punch destined for her predatory jaw.
She dropped her shoulder and proceeded to roll him over her back to reroute his attack. He immediately came back once he landed. When she tried swiping her claws at him, he punched her wrist to deflect them. Following that was a different punch to her chest. She hit back with a nasty elbow to his ribcage. What she failed to see was his arm charged back with an extra coat of Armament Haki on top of the existing one.
So, when he flattened his hand and attempted to jab a crater into her face, she felt him split air particles as she barely dodged. An air current followed the path, shooting through the leaves above them. It was the same technique that Adrian had tried to use against Cherokee. But just that one instance made Kiyaya aware of how potent of a hit that would be. She continued to move side to side and duck when he kept trying to use the technique against her.
Kiyaya had her Observation Haki working as hard as possible to keep her alive. She needed some kind of moment of opportunity to get away from the defensive. Once that little window came, she swung her leg up toward his face. The side of her foot grazed his cheek. Right when she tried to kick him to the side, she instead hooked around the back of his neck and delivered a hefty kick to his stomach with her other foot.
Sosuke felt it ripple through his entire body like a rock getting tossed into still water. He groaned and spit up blood.
Kiyaya propelled herself off him while he did not try to come after her.
"Now that's cold," he hoarsely stated, wiping his chin clean.
"Oopsie," she played, approaching him again. "That was a double standard."
He ducked when she punched. Then he twisted around to kick her with the back of his heel. She bumped it away from her head, but he suddenly planted that foot and turned his back to her. The swing of his other leg caught her ankles, and she collapsed. To finish his spin, Sosuke stood back up and tried to stomp her where she lay. She knew it was coming, though, so she rolled to avoid it. In the middle of the roll, she got into a squat. One more spin allowed her to deliver a similar kick with the back of her heel, which he tried to block.
Unfortunately for him, it was hard enough to thrust him away. But he refused to fall. His wings reappeared to abruptly stop his movement. There was no break to be had when, in that same moment, he beat his wings so hard that he came soaring at her. Their collision was painfully heard. Not only did he punch her sternum, but he also got a handful of her shirt. They looked into each other's eyes while rushing deeper into the forest.
Lakota had to time it perfectly. Just like his vision predicted, the Admiral was driving Kiyaya to a particular area. He really did see the future. He had no more doubts about it. The only thing not going to come true about it was her demise. As he hid away in the flora, he kept his grip on the tree secure. They were about to pass him.
"HEY, SHITHEAD!" he bellowed.
Sosuke's eyes moved to the right. That was when his boot stepped right in the middle of a rope loop. Lakota swung the detached tree he was holding to activate a pulley he threw together. One end of a rope was tied to the tree he held while it dangled over a branch thick enough to withstand a lot of weight all once. In an instant, Sosuke's ankle was ensnared in a trap, and he was yanked up without time to stop it. Kiyaya stumbled back until she lost her balance, falling on her behind. Looking up resulted in her seeing the Admiral break through the branch acting as the pulley and get slung out of sight.
Sosuke fought the G-forces that were acting against him. He could feel that his next destination was the ground after getting splintered by all kinds of woody flora. Lakota had swung the tree until it was completely behind his shoulders. Now he was driving it over his head to literally try sending this guy to another dimension, basically. Was it overkill? Yeah…but he was going to kill Kiyaya! What choice did he have when he had this insane strength to rely on?
Well, Sosuke had other plans. He sprouted wings and reached down to slip his boot out from the loop. By the time he flew to save himself, the tree was getting swallowed back up into the forest. All the disturbed leaves swirled underneath him. Then the resounding boom! showed just how ridiculous the act was. Sosuke leveled himself to hover, he had to admit that he got the better of him in that moment. Unfortunately, it was not enough. It was too bad.
That was when Sosuke was bombarded by the sudden reemergence of the tree. Lakota had dragged it back, picked it up, and swung it around him to chuck it at him. Unlike the missile he threw before, this tree was spinning like a propeller. Sosuke was hovering just a tad too close to the treetops because his eyes widened – once again caught by surprise by a total nobody.
The side of his face took the brunt of the hit. His neck snapped out of place – or so it seemed – and he got knocked away. What a strange way to convince a person to become a tree hugger. Needless to say, it was by far the hardest hit he had taken all night. Even Kiyaya's jaw hit the ground when she saw it. "Geez!" she shouted.
Lakota wheezed as he exhaled forcefully. He did not think that would actually work. `If anything, it was a desperate attempt to not let the tree go to waste. He did not know whether to laugh or feel bad. Sosuke almost plummeted, but he flapped enough to catch himself. That was when Lakota realized he had poked a wasp nest. His nervous grin left as he quickly wrapped his arms around a new tree.
Meanwhile, Sosuke tried rolling the new crick out of his neck and spit out blood that was pooling around his tongue. He suddenly understood the event from earlier. It made little to no sense, but he just saw with his own eyes that the savage could do such things. He had to be the strongest man alive.
And that was when he saw another tree wobble as he uprooted it, too. The only thing Sosuke could think of was "Oh Hell no" as he flew down to stop him. No more throwing gigantic pieces of nature, please. If Adrian was still alive, he would never let him live it down. He might as well not give him a chance to make fun of him in the afterlife.
Lakota stopped when he felt Sosuke barreling straight for him. There would be no second attack. He just dropped the tree so he could avoid the hit. At the same time, he wanted to keep his attention off Kiyaya.
Sosuke had pulled Adrian's blade from his back to coat it in Haki. When he demolished the tree with it since it was in the way, he was prepared to skewer Lakota next. But Lakota suddenly vanished. Sosuke's narrowed eyes changed back to surprise. The ground ended up taking the hit instead, and he found himself on his hands and knees with a new crater surrounding him.
Then, Lakota kind of yelped and wobbled until he was sitting right on Sosuke's lower back. They both paused from the awkwardness.
Lakota was not even sure what he did. He saw Sosuke, knew he had to move, and did exactly that. Except he used Haki to increase the speed tremendously. And when he accidentally balanced his weight on his heels, he lost his balance. That was how he ended up sitting on the enemy.
When neither of them reacted, Kiyaya did it for them. "Ah! Lakota!" she squeaked.
Sosuke was not amused to say the least. He did not think he was blundering around, but this guy was making him look bad more than once. He knew that if he did not take care of him, he would only be a nuisance going forward. So, he stood up to push him off. Their backs touched briefly. "You do a good job at being unpredictable," he complimented the warrior. "But that won't get you too far."
His fingers grew black with Haki just to make his next move the finisher. He jumped and swung his arm so hard that he spun. It was aimed at Lakota's ear and meant to completely break his neck.
But by the time he had turned, Lakota was gone again.
Sosuke grouched at the repeated trick as he went through with his voided attack. The swing of his arm blew a gust toward the grass and even flipped him. He landed on the back of his shoulders and rolled into a crouch. When he looked back up, Lakota had reappeared exactly where he was standing before.
There was no inclination to entertain him anymore. Sosuke just charged at him again. He ducked and swung a leg over top his hip to roundhouse kick him. But in the middle of the path, Lakota disappeared again. Sosuke was forced to follow through with his kick in midair and land just to see he reappear in a different spot.
If those kinds of attacks were useless, then he had no choice but to charge him head-on. But it happened again!
"It's not that I'm unpredictable," Lakota argued, ducking his missed punch to get behind him. "It's just that you're too predictable."
Sosuke flinched from how close he sounded. Then he felt his wrist be grabbed and yanked backward. By the time he caught on to what was happening, Lakota had let go and turned the other way to snag him in a backhanded punch to the side of his face. Sosuke took the hit by steadying his footing and jumping back. But Lakota was right on him. He pursued him with another punch that hit right in the diaphragm. Sosuke felt all the air leave his lungs as he flew back into trees and knocked them all over since he damaged them so badly.
Lakota took a few breaths as the creaking of wood and rustling of leafy branches made birds leave the area. As he stood up straight, he could not help but feel relief. He had once again saw a vision of how the Admiral was going to easily kill him and turned around the outcome. And now Kiyaya was safe.
"You savages are always such a pain in the ass," Sosuke cursed, emerging from the wreckage and charging back at him. He leapt with the sword's handle being held like a spear and threw it as hard and precisely as he could. It was almost as if Adrian had sent it himself from how good he executed the move.
Its impact caused a little explosion to go off as he landed back on his feet, shrouding Lakota in a dust cloud. Sosuke stayed still for a moment. He did not disappear that time. Maybe he finally did it. "Bingo," he murmured with a smirk.
Then he gasped as he noticed the little blue sparks waving and glittering through the cloud. As it settled, Kiyaya's figure became more prominent. She had blocked Lakota by stepping in front of him and caught the blade in her hand. A little bit of blood dripped from the resulting cut on her palm, but it was nothing serious. "Hey, Kota," Kiyaya said, dropping the sword and cauterizing the cut with a single finger. "Together this time?"
Lakota relaxed as he grew happy with the invitation. "Sounds like fun," he approved. "Gotta warn you, though. I'm kinda winging it as I go along."
She laughed. "You-teia are a good fighter if you call that winging it."
Sosuke exhaled annoyingly. He was a freaking Admiral…and he was struggling against a rookie? How does that make any sense?
At that point he decided to keep his focus on the mission. Forget about his grief for a second and think about how he was to return to Token with another victory under his belt. To do that, he had to act now. He charged Kiyaya again with a leap that led with his foot driving into her hip. Very quickly after that, pulled his leg back just to kick the side of her ribcage, and in the same motion, he extended his leg fully to kick the side of her triangular jaw.
The sparking armor of her electro made holes where he hit thanks to his Haki penetrating past it. As her head recoiled from his power, he landed and punched her hard enough to send her back into Lakota. But he just moved enough to catch her in a lover's cradle so she would not fall. Rather than worrying about her being in pain, he gave her a boost to send her back. And she did not skip a beat.
Sosuke held up his fists as she came running back. Once close enough, he lifted his knee to kick her again, but her attempted punch was quicker. He deflected her wrist to the side just to encounter a different punch from her nondominant hand. He barely turned so she would hit his arm. That was how he found out she was just trying the first punch again. But that time he ducked away from it. Over and over, they exchanged hits that did not seem to affect each other.
It was all so that Lakota could crash the party. He jumped over them both and flipped purely to close in Sosuke from both angles. There would be no escape from them.
Lakota spun back into the air to kick Sosuke in the center of his back. He stumbled forward, allowing Kiyaya to swing her leg into his side. Now his weight was knocked sideways. Lakota punched the opposite side to push him back toward her. She punched him back toward him. So on and so forth until Kiyaya jumped and kicked the side of his face with the bottom of her foot. When Lakota clocked him with an uppercut, more blood spit out from his clenched teeth.
Lakota kicked his back. Kiyaya punched him across the face. Lakota coated his fist in another layer of Armament Haki without realizing it. The punch to Sosuke's gut was brutal; a huge blood clot dislodged from his stomach because of it. And as if that was not enough, Kiyaya flipped and delivered another grueling kick with her heel that was different from the previous ones. She focused all of her electro into the appendage along with Haki. When contact was made, the shock was overwhelming with power.
Big bolts of blue electricity sizzled all around them, striking the ground and little air particles that were attracted enough. Sosuke coughed and felt like his nerves were on fire. The Mink Tribe's electro abilities could be deadly if dealing with the wrong one. He got the idea that this Sulong was as strong as a duke's.
With no intention on giving him an inch, Lakota whizzed around them to punch Sosuke's most vulnerable area. But Sosuke pulled himself from this embarrassing display and blocked his fist. His chin was covered in blood and his eyes appeared glazed over as if he was going into autopilot. As Lakota tried again with his free hand, Sosuke deflected him again, but this time he turned to grip his arm and roll him over his shoulders.
Lakota toppled into Kiyaya, who caught him. But Sosuke was hot on his tail. The newlyweds separated so he would have to choose between them. He landed and immediately took off with his legs together and arms crossed in a spin. Lakota could see that it was directed toward him. It powered his next swinging kick that clipped his elbow. Lakota shifted gears by trying to punch him using the arm he had not touched.
Kiyaya dogpiled – literally – the Admiral by flying in with a kick of her own. She was aiming for his neck, but he turned with her body's momentum to absorb the hit gently. She realized it was a possible trap and pulled back, just to spin in the air and try kicking him again. But she missed.
Unfortunately for Sosuke, Lakota was going to back up his wife no matter what the circumstances were. The back of his heel chopped straight down into the groove of his shoulder. He felt his clavicle snap. In addition, he suddenly felt the fronts of his feet lose their stability. His knees were not giving out. It was just that he was falling. The ground opened and he got swallowed up whole thanks to Lakota's boost.
"Whoa!" Kiyaya voiced as a hidden sinkhole gaped open where the Admiral once stood.
Lakota cringed at the sound of a body hitting the bottom. It sounded deep. Even if he did that on purpose, he did not know what the tribe's children prepared at the bottom for unlucky victims. He just happened to find it and have time to make it look inconspicuous.
Kiyaya came closer to barely peer down into the abyss. "Where did that come from?"
"This area is bad for pooling rainwater that can't drain. It weakens the rock underneath and sometimes it collapses to form holes like these," Lakota explained. "I watched him dance around it and finally got him close enough thanks to you."
"I thought you-teia said you were winging it."
"I am." There were a lot of traps set up. Maybe they were spur of the moment and not pre-tested before walking away from them, but they were worth a try for the short timeframe he had to set them up. It was only a matter of whether the Admiral fell for them that they would see if they worked or not.
Their little window for recuperation was cut short when they heard deep thumps down the hole. Lakota and Kiyaya curiously looked down to see nothing at first. But then a few thumps later, a hand covered in chitinous black plates and grayish fuzz reached up to grab farther up the steep rock wall. They immediately jumped back with alarm.
Sosuke had no room to save himself with his wings. He had no choice but to hit the bottom. But one thing that it did allow was for him to fully transform without interruption. The human-beast form of any Bug Bug Fruit was ghastly to the eyes. He crawled up from a pit of Hell with creepy characteristics like giant bulbous black eyes and antennae long enough to be another pair of legs. And what frightened his opponents the most was how much bigger he had grown. Sosuke was already fairly tall, but his body appeared to have bulked in under a minute. Whether that was a side effect of his powers or not was unclear. But they were now dealing with a monstrosity.
"You-teia got a deeper hole?" Kiyaya asked lightheartedly.
"Uh…not that I'm aware of."
Sosuke dug his fingers into the ground to haul himself up. He strut his misshapen body up to them both until they had to crane their necks to maintain eye contact. Then, without warning, he bore down on Lakota with a knifehand strike. The Haki he used was the toughest he could summon for physical attacks, so much so that when Lakota lifted his arm to block the hit, he felt a staggering shockwave shake through his bone marrow.
The ground underneath his feet buckled and depressed. And the air pressure shifted so abruptly that a gust went in all directions around them. Above them, the trees harshly shuttered just like when a twister ripped through. Lakota felt his feet sink deeper as Sosuke refused to relent. "Kiyaya?" he said worriedly since he could not sense her close to him anymore.
"I'm fine!" she claimed, pulling herself back to her feet a few feet away.
He looked up at Sosuke with the idea that their fight was about to get ugly. Not that he did not trust her, but he was finding the risks outweighing the recompences now. "I think you should let me take it from here, Sweetheart," he safeguarded.
She halted, seeing him hold off the Admiral with his arm trembling with effort. "Absolutely not," she disputed. "We're doing this together."
With a shaky breath, he turned his head toward her. He had seen a vision again and did not want it to come true. Having the burden of seeing people's demise was starting to hurt him. It really was a curse bestowed upon him. Its use would help them figure out a way to win this, but he would be distressed throughout the struggle. "Please," he said with a little glimmer of sadness in his dark iris.
Don't make me watch you die over and over again, he internally pleaded.
He suddenly disappeared right in front of them both, forcing Sosuke to finish his attack by hitting the damaged ground he once stood on. Then, without warning, Lakota punched the side of his head while practically levitating sideways. The punch was enough to make Sosuke want to stumble like he had before.
But then Kiyaya rushed them both with claws slashing through the front of his white coat. A spurt of blood erupted from the new wounds he sustained. While Kiyaya's back was turned, Lakota rested a hand on her because Sosuke was about to target her next. Their Haki-coated fists clashed exactly where their knuckles were located. It was too much to hold each other at another standstill. Instead, they repelled each other and went flying in opposite directions.
Lakota bowled through the forest without any control of his body. He trenched into the ground, rolled, trenched again, until finally he stopped thanks to friction. It hurt to be contorted like that while tearing down trees in his wake, too. He moaned and sat up with dizziness in his gaze. And then he realized that Kiyaya was gone again. Maybe that was for the best.
He watched Sosuke's silhouette become clearer with every step. If he was already here, that could only mean he was not tossed away as easily as he was. All he could pray for was that Cherokee was coming back soon. He would hold the line for as long as he could, but even he knew he was ultimately no match for the Admiral.
